Popular Culture

At concerts, people experience collective effervescence, which is the emotional energy one receives from taking part in social gatherings. 

Conspicuous consumption is status displays that show off one's wealth through conspicuous consumption of goods and services. Consumption is particularly lavish, lacking obvious utility, or wasteful. Diamond "grills" are just for show, not practicality.

Consumerism is an ideology that promotes the acquisition of goods and services ever-greater amounts. It propers the insatiable belief that we need what we do not have. Ironically, the brand "Obey" points out consumerism, while partaking in its encouragement. 

Contrary to popular belief, the Sleeper Curve states that popular culture is getting more mentally challenging as the medium evolves. Video games improve abstract problem-solving skills. 

Family and Life at Home

A nuclear family consists of a father, a mother, and their biological children.

An extended family is a large group of relatives, usually including at least three generations. They typically live either in one household or in close proximity.

This Pakistani couple is practicing endogamy, which is the custom of marrying within one's social group. This could be within race, ethnicity, class, religion, region or nationality. 

This Filipino woman and American man are practicing exogamy, which is marriage between people from different social groups. 

There is a significantly greater occurrence of single mothers than single fathers. 

Sex and Gender

Feminization of poverty is the economic trend showing that women are more likely than men to live in poverty. This is due to gender inequalities such as gendered gap in wages and higher proportion of single mothers. 

Gender role socialization is the lifelong process of learning to be masculine or feminine. Families, schools, peers, and media are primary agents of socialization. Even toys play a role in gender role socialization. 

Heterosexual privilege is advantages given to those of heterosexual orientation. For example, heterosexuals can publicly display affection and not expect hostile or violent reactions from others.

Gender refers to the physical, behavior, and personality traits that a group considers normal for its male and female members. Transgenders express traits that do not match their assigned sex. 

Feminism is the belief in the social, political, and economic equality of the sexes and the social movements organized around that belief. During the second wave of feminism, women wearing pants became common. 

Race and Ethnicity

Symbolic ethnicity is an ethnic identity that is only relevant on specific occasions and does not significantly impact everyday life. For example, most Irish-Americans only exhibit their ethnicity on St. Patrick's Day.

Racial Assimilation is when racial minority groups are absorbed into the dominant group through intermarriage. This makes society more homogenous. 

Hispanics are one of the largest minority groups in America. Minority groups are systematically denied the same access to power and resources available to the dominant groups of a society. 

Racial and ethnic groups have great differences in access to healthcare. In turn, this may account for the differing life expectancy rate for different races. 

Donald Sterling has become notorious for his racism. His remarks demonstrate his belief that there is superiority of certain racial or ethnic groups. 

Social Class and Inequality

Social stratification is the division of society into groups arranged in a social hierarchy based on access to wealth, power, and prestige. 

The upper class are the wealthiest people in the class system. They only make up about 1% of the U.S. population, but they possess most of the wealth of the country. They buy over-the-top mansions, while many people cannot even afford to buy food or water.

Car mechanics are members of the working class, which consists of "blue-collar" or service industry workers. They perform manual labor for a living.

Cultural capital is knowledge, skills, tastes, and dispositions that one acquires through being part of a particular social class. For example, upper-class individuals have a taste for caviar because they have been exposed to it through their life experience. 

The American Dream is the ideology that anyone can achieve material success if they work hard enough. It is usually imagined as owning a house with a white picket fence. In reality, not every individuals chances of upward mobility are equal. There are structural factors that contribute to an individual's success or failure. 

Deviance and Conformity

Conformists reach socially approved goals through socially approved means. Most white collar jobs are an example of conformity.

Labeling theory claims that deviance is a consequence of external judgements which modify both the individual's self-concept and change the way others respond to the labeled person. 

Violent crime is a crime in which violence is either the objective or the means to an end. Violent crimes include murder, rape, assault, and robbery.

Property crime is crime that does not involve violence. It includes arson, burglary, and theft.

A stigma is any physical or social attribute that devalues a person's identity, which may lead to exclusion from normal social interaction. In order to negotiate everyday interaction, stigmatized individuals may use a strategy called passing, to "mask" the stigma.

Life in Groups

Primary groups are groups that we are closely associated with, such as family. It involves more face-to-face interaction, great cooperation, and deeper feelings of belonging. They are long-lasting.

 Secondary groups are larger groups whose relationships are formal and institutional, such as coworkers or teammates. They are usually organized around a specific activity or the accomplishment of a task.

A dyad is the smallest possible social group. It consists of only two members with only one relationship between them. It is fundamentally unstable because of its size. A married couple is one example of a dyad.

Anomie is feelings of normlessness. Some sociologists believe that anomie will result as the modern world becomes increasingly disconnected from their groups. We are becoming Simmel's definition of a 'stranger', which is physically close, but psychologically far away.

Traditional authority is authority based in custom, birthright, or divine right. It usually associated with monarchies and dynasties. The Queen of England is an example of traditional authority.

McDonaldization, term coined by Ritzer, describes the spread of bureaucratic rationalization and the accompanying increases in efficiency and dehumanization. Like the principles of the fast food industry, principles of predictability, calculability, efficiency, and control through non-human technology are coming to dominate social life.

Socialization, The Self, and Social Interaction

Cooley's concept of the looking-glass self states that one's self-image is a reflection of how we think other people perceive us. The self develops through the process of social interactions with others.

Goffman's perspective of dramaturgy compares social interactions to the theater. Individuals are actors that take on roles and act them out to present a favorable impression to their "audience".

Mass media is a significant agent of socialization. It plays a major role in teaching Americans to buy and consume goods. Due to the advancement of technology, media is all around us. We are constantly exposed to it, so it has a major influence on our norms and values.

School is another important agent of socialization. It socializes us through a hidden curriculum, which teaches behaviors such as punctuality, discipline, hard work, competition and obedience.

A total institution is an institution that controls almost all aspects of its members' lives. A 

dramatic form of resocialization occurs here. The military is an example of a total institution.

Culture

 Symbolic culture includes ways of thinking and ways of behaving. In America, symbolic culture consists of values such as freedom and equality.

Material culture includes objects associated with a cultural group, such as food, tools, buildings and artwork. For example, a roasted pig is typically found at large Filipino celebrations.

Multiculturalism embraces diverse racial, ethnic, national, and linguistic backgrounds. It promotes the retention of cultural differences within society, rather than assimilation.

Subcultures is a group within society that is differentiated by its distinctive values, norms, and lifestyles. Within the rave culture, members listen to electronic dance music, wear flashy neon clothes, and value "PLUR" (peace, love, unity, and respect).

Culture shock is a sense of disorientation that occurs when one enters a radically new social or cultural environment. Once an individual understand and embraces a culture in its own terms, that is cultural relativism. This is a photo of me trying to embrace scorpion as a delicacy of Thailand.

Ethnocentrism is the principle of using one's own culture as a standard by which to judge others. It leads to the view that cultures other than one's own are abnormal. Like a ruler, we use our own culture as a measure of comparison, rather than viewing culture on its own terms.

Taboo is a norm that society holds so strongly that violating it evokes extreme feelings of disgust, horror, or revulsion in people. 

Sociological Research Methods

Qualitative research involves data that cannot easy be converted to numbers, such as observations, field notes, interviews, photographs, and tape recordings.

Literature review is conducted to establish what is already known about a topic. After conducting a literature review, a research forms a hypothesis.

Theories and Theorists

The theory of Positivism, developed by August Comte, argues that sense perceptions (see, hear, smell, taste, feel) are the only valid source of knowledge. According to Positivism, it is possible to observe social life and establish valid knowledge about how it works. 

Structural Functionalism assumes that society is a unified whole that functions because of the contributions of its separate structures. It sees society as an ordered system of  interrelated structures, like pieces of a puzzle. 

Marx believed that capitalism was creating social inequality and class conflict between the bourgeoisie, who owned the means of production and the proletariat, who were the workers. Factories are an example of means of production owned by the bourgeoisie.

Durkheim demonstrated that industrial societies (e.g., modern cities) are held together by organic solidarity, which is a type of social bond based on a division of labor that creates interdependence and individual rights. 

Weber was concerned with increasing rationalization due to the development of bureaucracies throughout society. He believed it would lead to an "iron cage" of rationality, in which we begin losing humanity.